Putting together a nutritious bento box for loved ones every morning is quite an arduous task, especially when considering variety can be just as important as how delicious it tastes. To make the labor of making such lunches a source of creative outlet, many home cooks create chara-ben masterpieces and colorfully decorated bentos, but this elaborate and time-consuming process obviously isn’t for everyone. Still, it’s nice to sneak in a cute surprise for the hungry people in our lives once in a while, which is probably why “helmet octopus aliens” made of sausages have become a big trend on Japanese Instagram.

Anyone who’s seen pictures of a typical Japanese bento box may have noticed octopus wieners, little red sausages that are cut up to look like octopuses.

Japanese Instagrammer @miyas228, however, decided to take this familiar okazu (side dish) and turn it into adorable aliens that are *almost* too cute to eat.

These eight-legged aliens are pretty easy to make:

1. Cut a sausage in half and slice 8 legs into it.
2. Poke a thin straw through the sausage to make the mouth.
3. Cut off a quarter of a chikuwa (tube-shaped fish cake) and make an incision near the bottom of the piece to make a helmet. Place the helmet on the sausage (it might help to remove the straw for this step).
4. Cook in the toaster for about 2 minutes.
5. Makes holes for eyes and fill with black sesame seeds.

Lunch just got a little more exciting with these charming octopus aliens infiltrating our bentos.